The present invention is related generally to the inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,952,095 issued Apr. 20, 1976, for novel antibiotic and a process for the production thereof, U.S. Pat. No. 4,064,233 issued Dec. 20, 1977, for antibiotic A-4696, U.S. Pat. No. 4,115,552 issued Sept. 19, 1978, for factor A and B of antibiotic A-4696, and copending U.S. application of Manuel Debono, Kurt E. Merkel, Robert E. Weeks, and Herold J. Cole, for Antibiotic A-4696 Factors B.sub.1, B.sub.2, B.sub.3, C.sub.1a, C.sub.3, and E.sub.1, Attorney Docket No. X-5366, filed concurrently herewith at even date.
An aglycone hydrolysis derivative of antibiotic A-4696 was described in the above cited U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,064,233 and 4,115,552 but the hydrolysis derivative was not the pseudo-aglycone of the present invention. It is possible but not certain that a minute amount (2% or less) of the pseudo-aglycone may have been produced by the hydrolysis procedure disclosed in the prior patents. However, the hydrolysis conditions as earlier described, do not favor pseudo-aglycone formation and, if any antibiotic A-4696 pseudo-aglycone was produced, it was not recognized or appreciated at the time.